Underwater Wreckage of AJ-2 1340.. in Philippines

In November 2006 I received an email from Dave
Manning dave@electricalfibers.com.
He told me of underwater wreckage of an AJ-2 that had been discovered near
Subic Bay in the Philippine Republic and sent the following three pictures.

The letter code, the paint color, the partial BuNo, and the style of the
markings all combine to indicate that this was an AJ-2 assigned to VAH-6
and that whatever occurred happened sometime beween approximately January 1956
and May 1957. The most likely candidate seems to be BuNo 134060 which was
operated by VAH-6 and w/o (written off) 10 January 1957. A second but less
likely candidate is BuNo 134068 which was listed as DBR (damaged beyond
repair) in January 1956. My recollection is that the planes were very
likely to have had the old blue paint scheme at that time (January 1956) rather
than the newer mist grey paint scheme.

Relying upon my hunch I have written on 23 November 2006 for the
accident report for BuNo 134060 in the hope that I can get some idea of
the locale and circumstances of its loss.

Since Dave Manning's first email we have been in contact several
times, and I have been able to tell him that the side number of
BuNo 134060 was "5," where to look for the side number, and also
where else to look for the BuNo. Dave has put me in touch with
Steve Brittian stvbrit@yahoo.com,
who is one of those who have dived upon the wreckage. Steve is
an instructor at Johan's Adventure and Wreck Dive
Center http://www.subicdive.com/.

Steve Brittian has been more specific about the location
of the wreck, telling me that it is "located near Silangin
w/c is approximately 10-15km North of Subic Bay along the
coast, it's surprisingly close to shore as a matter of fact."
Steve says that it is 72 meters deep "so running trips
to this site are only done on a rare occasion when we
have qualified deep divers with proper training and
experience." He has indicated to me that he will try
to uncover more of the identifying marks at his next
opportunity. I am in hopes that the other side of the
vertical tail fin will reveal the last two digits of
the BuNo. That would be conclusive. However, a side
number will be almost as good.

On 28 November 2006, Steve Brittian wrote in an email,
"Earlier today Mr. Johan De Sadelier, the owner of the
dive shop, dove the bomber with 2 other divers. Lo and
behold, he revealed the last two digits! Your assumption
is correct, and the full BuNo NP[sic, really "NF"] 134060
is confirmed. That's her."

On 19 March 2013, I received an email from Jess Rowland, Jr. [JRowland@HVC.RR.COM] informing me that "Iíve got dadís old log books with a bunch of AJ-2 entries including his entry for piloting 134060 into the water."